Missing the Big Story

Authored by Michael Pate on November 26th, 2003 at 10:56 AM

Congress approved a bill on Friday that expands the reach of the Patriot Act, reduces oversight of the FBI and intelligence agencies and, according to critics, shifts the balance of power away from the legislature and the courts. A provision of an intelligence spending bill will expand the power of the FBI to subpoena business documents and transactions from a broader range of businesses — everything from libraries to travel agencies to eBay — without first seeking approval from a judge. - Ryan Singel

One of the problems with the media coverage of this Administration is that it requires bad manners. I don’t mean the kind of bad manners usually associated with reporters: shouting over one another, elbowing a colleague to get closer to one’s interview subject or even quoting an anonymous source reporting that so-and-so really isn’t up to the job. Rather, to be an honest, objective and fair-minded reporter of the Bush Administration’s policies requires pointing out repeatedly and without sentimentality that just about all the men and women responsible for the conduct of this nation’s foreign (and many of its domestic) affairs are entirely without personal honor when it comes to the affairs of state. This simply isn’t done in respectable journalism, and the Bush people understand that. Arthur Miller, speaking at a Nation Institute dinner last year, termed the willingness to use this kind of knowledge “the power of audacity.” - Eric Alterman

To me, the top story is the most important since the War in Iraq began. And it should have been readily apparent to the Washington Press Corps is they did the proper groundwork like reading the bills that are posted online. Instead, they spend so much time racing around looking to scoop each other for the latest scandal that they don’t see what really matters until after the fact.

You can be as rude as you want at Thomas.

Links in this entry:

Colin Powell and 'The Power of Audacity'
Congress Expands FBI Spying Power
THOMAS -- U.S. Congress on the Internet

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